My Seven and the Ragged Tiger Story

Last weekend, I blogged about Duran Duran’s third studio album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, which you can read here. In that blog, I listed the facts of the album, including who was on it, the singles, the videos and more. While that certainly provides the Duran Duran history, it does not describe how fans felt about that album. Thus, I wanted to take time to share my story, my feelings about the album. Then, I invite all of you to share your stories, too!

In 1983, I turned 8. I lived in the suburbs of Chicago where I had everything that I could hope for, including a best friend and activities to keep us busy. When my best friend and I hung out together, we always had the radio on, most specifically B96, the Top 40 radio station. If we were in the “TV room”, then MTV played in the background. For some reason, both of us preferred to have something on in the background while we played “store” or whatever else we did for fun.

As all of you know, both radio and MTV frequently played Duran Duran in 1983. By that point, they embraced songs and videos from the Rio album. Both my friend and I liked those songs and videos we heard from that album, but they still were more in the background rather than in the foreground for us. Age mattered. Duran Duran released Seven at just the right time. Union of the Snake premiered first. I enjoyed it but it didn’t grab me. New Moon on Monday, though, began to really burrow its way into my brain like any good ear worm. More than the fabulous chorus, I recall watching the video for New Moon on Monday and loving it. (I still love it. It is my favorite video, by far.) I loved the storyline and thought the guys looked great!

Oh, yes, by early 1984, my interest grew to officially liking the band. Discussions between my friend and I surrounded the band for the first time. We started to spend some of our money on books, magazines and any other merchandise we could find as we debated which guy we liked best. Initially, I liked all of them with a slight pull to Simon. I liked his main character role in the New Moon on Monday video. Yet, I also liked the friendship aspect of John and Nick during that same video. I was slightly conflicted!

Then, the Reflex premiered and changed everything! The conflict ended as I fell hard for a certain bass player after watching the video over and over and over! There was just something about John Taylor during that video that got to me. Not only that, I loved the song. Loved it! My best friend adored it as well. We were so ridiculous that we called each other on the phone each time that the song came on the radio or appeared on MTV. We couldn’t get enough and our parents allowed it for some crazy reason. Clearly, we were officially Duranies from then on!

From that point, our fandom took on big roles for each of us, individually, but also for our friendship. Instead of playing store or swinging in my backyard, we now watched MTV all the time while we poured over teen magazines, memorizing each and every fact. Our bedroom walls featured nothing but Duran Duran posters. We lived and breathed Duran Duran.

So, while many Duranies claim the first album or Rio made them serious fans, for me, it was Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

One thought on “My Seven and the Ragged Tiger Story”

Prior to ay I became a fan after watching the clip of The Reflex, as most of the Duran fans, I never purchased the album when it was released or, however, in the 80’s and I never wondered why.
I was 12, I was having my crush on Roger and at the same time, my first real crush at school, with an older guy.
I rate that period of my life one of the worst ones of my life, so far and I’m glad I could buy and enjoy the album in late 90’s, when I was wiser.

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